BANGALORE: A resident of Mysore who was sentenced to life imprisonment for kidnapping the son of a lawyer has appealed to the Karnataka High Court against the conviction.

According to the State, Manjunath and two others had on May 17, 1996, kidnapped Kalyan Ram Joshi, the son of Ashwin Kumar Joshi, a lawyer of Mysore. Mr. Joshi represented the State as the Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) in the Veerappan cases that were being tried in the TADA Court in Mysore.

The kidnappers demanded a ransom of Rs. 30 lakhs from Ashwin for releasing his son. The anti-rowdy squad of Mysore police rescued Kalyan from a house and arrest his kidnappers.

The Fast Track Court (FTC) of Mysore sentenced Manjunath to life imprisonment on April 25, 2005. Manjunath appealed against the court judgment on Wednesday.

A Division Bench comprising Justice A.M. Farooq and Justice B.S. Patil ordered the issue of notices to the State and adjourned further hearing on the case.